The church calendar consists of rolling and non-moving holidays. There are twelve main holidays in Orthodoxy. They are called the Twelve Feasts. Most of them are connected with gospel events, but there are also those that are based on important events described in the tradition.
The year begins with the Nativity of Christ. Everyone knows that it is January 7, but since the Orthodox Church uses the old style, for her it is not at the beginning, but at the end of the year: December 25 according to the Julian calendar.
The second holiday of the year is Epiphany or Theophany. The holiday is called so because the whole Trinity appeared here for the first time: the Son (baptized), the Holy Spirit (dove) and the Father (voice). It's January 19th. The Christian holidays of Christmas and Epiphany in the calendar are close to each other and the days between them are called Christmastide. This is a festive time when the usual fast on Friday and Wednesday is canceled, and joyful chants are heard in the temples. But according to the gospel story, these two events are separated from each other by thirty years, and logically Christmas is followed by the Presentation of the Lord, when the Mother of God brought her Son to the Temple. Candlemas is celebrated on 15February. All these are Christian holidays, which are celebrated annually on the same dates.
But the main Christian holiday is, of course, Easter. Its date depends on the moon, the Jewish Passover, and some other factors. Christian holidays associated with Easter - the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, as well as the Ascension and the Trinity. It is impossible to specify their exact number, each time a certain number of days must be counted from Easter. The Lord's entry into Jerusalem, for example, is a week before Easter, the Feast of the Ascension is forty days later, and the Trinity is fifty days later. Christian holidays in 2013 or in the coming 2014 are best looked at by Easter. This is the name of a special calendar of holidays and other church events associated with Easter.
April 7, exactly 9 months before Christmas, the Annunciation is celebrated, when the Angel appeared to the Virgin and announced to her the good news. This is the same day the baby Jesus was conceived.
All other Christian holidays of April-May are passing, so the next one can be celebrated the day of Peter and Paul, Holy Apostles. This is the end of Peter's Lent. The time from the beginning of the Great Lent (usually the end of February - the beginning of March) to the beginning of the Peter's Lent (the end of May - June) is regulated by Easter, and after the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, everything goes the same every year again.
August 28 is the Assumption of the Mother of God, September 21 is the Nativity of the Mother of God, September 27 is the Ex altation of the Cross. The Ex altation of the Cross and the Intercession (October 14)they do not seem to have a gospel basis, these are events that occurred much later. But they are important for every Christian, so these holidays are twelfth.
The last holiday of the year is the Entry into the Temple of the Mother of God. Historically, this event happened before all other Christian holidays, back in the days of the childhood of the Mother of God.
In order to find out what a Christian holiday is today, just look at the Orthodox calendar. There, in addition to big memorable dates, the days of memory of saints are marked, which are celebrated daily.
